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Carrie Coon (left) and Justin Theorux reunite in the final moments of the series finale of HBO’s “The Leftovers.” [HBO photo]

THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM THE SERIES FINALE OF HBO SERIES “THE LEFTOVERS.”

“Nothing is answered. Everything is answered. And then it ends.”

The official HBO synopsis for Sunday’s series finale of “The Leftovers” reads as though it was tapped from the same vein through which the series itself flows. In just three sentences, it’s a darkly comical, proudly vague and unflinchingly crass reflection of creators Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta’s disinterest in answering every question they’ve posed — right the bitter end.

Thankfully, the stunning and simplistic final episode of the show’s incomparable three-season run does offer viewers who stuck by it through the dreary, the unexplained and the gorgeously baffling an immensely satisfying send-off that is surprisingly and wonderfully cathartic.

In the final moments of episode, the camera settles in on its two anchors — Carrie Coon’s Nora and Justin Theroux’s Kevin — sitting on opposite ends of her dining room table. “The Leftovers” has never been afraid of big jumps, be they geographical (Mapleton to Jarden to Australia) or planes of existence (life to purgatory-ish). So it’s fitting in its final episode, the series take one final leap — several decades into the future.

To read the full reflection on “The Leftovers” and the series finale, head over to the StarNews.

Robin Wright (left) and Kevin Spacey return as the duplicitous First Couple in the new season of Netflix’s “House of Cards,” debuting May 30. [NETFLIX PHOTO]

For the first time in his five-year mad dash to the highest office in the land, “House of Cards’” morally corrupt president Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) has been blindsided by someone he never saw coming — Donald Trump.

As the fifth season of the stalwart series lands on Netflix May 30, it does so at a time when gawking at the power moves and backstabbing of the presidency has lost its guilty pleasure shine.

In his early days, first as the Majority Whip before manipulating his way to the White House, Frank’s puppetry of the government and the people who run it was fascinating because it felt familiar up against the recognizable image of Washington, D.C., while still injecting the stale nature of politics with juicy drama.

But with the nation now tuned into the real president’s every move, many of which are in stark contrast to normal operating procedure, the Underwoods’ thirst for power at any means no longer feel that removed from reality.

To read the full review before “House of Cards” premieres May 30, head to the StarNews.

LOS ANGELES — Patrick Swayze taught a spry, young Colt Prattes it was cool for men to dance.

In all fairness, Prattes wasn’t the only aspiring dancer to draw inspiration from Swayze’s effortless charisma and slick moves. But unlike the others, he now stands in the footsteps of Swayze in a way no other performer has.

Back in the ’90s, Prattes would spend weekends at his father’s cabin in middle-of-nowhere Georgia, left to explore the wilderness and watch whatever came on TV — which usually meant settling in with his stepmother for the umpteenth cable broadcast of a little movie called “Dirty Dancing.”

“Even if the story wasn’t as incredible as it is, even if the dancing wasn’t incredible, Patrick Swayze is in it,” Prattes said firmly. “Of course, all Southern moms are obsessed with this movie.”

When it came time to pursue dance himself, a high school-aged Prattes, still in the deep south, said his friends were quick to call into question his masculinity. But with a little nudge from his stepmom, he was reminded the infinitely talented Swayze never let perception stop him.

“That changed everything in my mind about what it meant to be a guy who danced,” he said. “The way he danced wasn’t feminine, he wasn’t feminine and that was something that, at that time, still mattered to me.”

With Swayze indelibly tied to Prattes’ dance origin story, it’s a bit of kismet the now-30-year-old professional dancer and singer made his major film debut in a screen role made famous by his idol — the rough and tumble, yet tender and talented Johnny Castle in “Dirty Dancing.”

For the full story Prattes and the new North Carolina-filmed “Dirty Dancing,” head over to the StarNews.

The annual bloodbath inside the ranks of television networks, all cleaning house before announcing their new fall shows next week, commenced this week and two former Wilmington productions were among the victims.

Fox’s “Sleepy Hollow” and ABC’s “Secrets and Lies” were both given the ax — yes, that is a pun on the former — after low ratings and increasingly sour reviews plagued each series. Both productions left the Port City after the 2014 decision to gut the state’s film incentive in favor of a diminished grant program. “Sleepy Hollow” began production on its third season outside Atlanta, while “Secrets and Lies” relocated to Los Angeles.… Read More »

If you’ve ever wondered why Hollywood has never produced a show where a shirtless Kevin Bacon walks down a small-town Texas street with a lamb wrapped around his neck before gently laying the animal down and shaving it with an electric razor, well, wonder no more.

This fever dream sequence — one more than a few dreamt up in the ’80s — comes in the fourth episode of Amazon’s not so subtly titled new dramedy “I Love Dick” (premiering May 12). It’s seen through the eyes of Chris (Kathryn Hahn), a New York filmmaker dropped into Marfa, Texas where her Holocaust scholar husband, Sylvere (Griffin Dunn), has snagged a residency under Bacon’s eponymous art institute founder. For Chris, the tumbleweed town offers little in the way of inspiration, until she lays eyes on Dick, in whom she sees a muse and an obsession.

But it’s not an obsession of pure infatuation. Out for a welcome dinner, Dick, in his grizzled, understated tone, stuns Chris by questioning the talent of women filmmakers like her, whom he says often make bummer movies because they have to work from behind oppression.

Starz’s new series “American Gods” is far more ambiguous than its bold-faced title may seem.

For viewers that might have formed their preconceptions about the fantastical series based solely on the promotional trailers, there isn’t much to go on.

Leading up to its premiere, airing 10 p.m. Sunday, the premium cable home of “Outlander” and “Ash Vs. Evil Dead” has taken the vague route in pitching its ambitious new project to the masses, padding its first trailers with haunting shots of a buffalo with flaming eyes and a collection of eclectic and imposing figures whispering about “our world.”

None of this is new for fans of the 2001 Neil Gaiman novel on which the series is based. But for the uninitiated, a place of ignorant bliss and intrigued bewilderment is likely the best place from which to start digesting this visually entertaining, albeit flawed feast from creators Bryan Fuller — the mastermind of stunning, late-but-great works like “Hannibal” and “Pushing Daisies” — and Michael Green.

To read the full review before the premiere, head over to the StarNewsOnline.com.

Enslaved by a totalitarian society that mandates she be used solely for the purpose of procreation, Offred is a woman bound by a life with little options, still clinging to the memory of the time before when she was married with a daughter who was literally taken from her arms.

At the start of the series, her inner monologue acts as the show’s narration and her only form of rebellion against a rigid, sexist society that values women who stay in line, shut up and do as they are expected.

In this world, infertility has stricken most women, the government has used fear mongering as a means to suspend the Constitution, strict religious values are the law of the land and the few still-fertile women are enlisted by force as handmaids, assigned to the home of influential men who are allowed to impregnate them without their consent.

In this deeply upsetting and breathtakingly oppressive landscape, known as the Republic of Gilead, Moss offers a beautifully intricate and brilliant performance that relies intensely on the one thing a handmaid no longer has control of: her body. It’s in the stiffness and tension of her posture, never truly sure when or if she can let her guard down; and her eyes, never holding on one person too long in fear she will violate her lower place in society.

In the first 10 minutes of the fourth episode of Netflix’s new dramedy “Girlboss,” there is a scene chronicling a group of twenty somethings reacting, in real time, to the season three finale of “The O.C.” as it airs in May 2006.

It’s a full-circle grief process beginning with denial Marissa Cooper’s life is at risk as she is dragged from a burning car by her perennial boyfriend Ryan Atwood, devastation when it becomes apparent she will not survive the episode and even one character’s hope Taylor Townsend will be a series regular next season — an opinion not well received by the room.… Read More »

The remarkable first two seasons of “The Leftovers,” HBO’s exploration of grief in the wake of a global rapture, forged a reputation for tackling a litany of heavy topics — religion, depression, cult-enforced chain smoking, existential trips to the afterlife, bad karaoke singing and, more broadly, the meaning of life itself. Needless to say, smiling and laughter weren’t often on the table.

So it’s a bit unnerving to see a fair amount of both in the premiere of the show’s third and final season, beginning 9 p.m. Sunday.… Read More »

One is the fastest man on Earth. The other is the Woman of Steel from Krypton. Usually separated by a few dozen inter-dimensional planes, Barry Allen and Kara Danvers came together Tuesday to prove they have, at least, one thing in common: some impressive pipes. The dynamic duo were aces in “Duet,” the long-teased (and let’s be honest, inevitable) musical crossover, which marked their second outing together — the first since “Supergirl” moved to The CW. Putting to good use… Read More »

A year of mid-level karate in my teens may not have left me breaking boards with my bare hands, but it did instill in me a basic understanding that at the core of any martial art are the principles of consistency and precision.

So it’s somewhat surprising that both practices are virtually non-existent in Netflix’s kung-fu inspired superhero origin story, “Marvel’s Iron Fist,” a laborious and uninspired final piece to the streaming giant’s “Defenders” character-driven series — “Daredevil,” “Jessica Jones” and “Luke Cage,”… Read More »

There is a redeeming force at work in the first installment of FX and Ryan Murphy’s latest anthology series “Feud,” but it’s not directed at the series itself. It aims to redeem the forever intertwined, rumor-ridden story of the two women who fill out the rest of its title: Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. It’s been more than 50 years since the two legendary actresses were pitted against one another onscreen for the first — and last — time in… Read More »

Even covered in blood, gnawing on a disembodied arm, Drew Barrymore is adorable.

It’s that charm and sadistically hilarious way at which she’s going at the appendage that goes a long way in selling her latest endeavor, Netflix’s campy cannibalism comedy “Santa Clarita Diet.”

In the series, premiering Feb. 3, Barrymore plays Shelia, one half of a California suburbs realtor supercouple (“Justified’s” Timothy Olyphant is her husband, Joel) who are at a place in their marriage and their life — they are also parents of a sardonic teenage daughter — where comfortable has segwayed into complacent. She wants to be 20 percent more bold and he wants a toast oven that works.… Read More »

In the DC Universe, where Batman and Superman save the planet on the regular, the number one cause of workplace accidents for the average person is the Man of Steel of crashing through their office window mid-fight.

That daily threat — alongside the possibility of falling debris, misdirected fireballs and train derailments — is what drives the employees at Wayne Security, who dream up inventions to keep the average citizen safe from superhero negligence.

This is the gist of NBC’s new comedy “Powerless,” an ironically harmless office-comedy take on the inconvenience of being human in a superhuman world.… Read More »

Syfy’s modern fantasy “The Magicians” enters into its second season facing a brave new world. Literally.

In last year’s finale, the Brakebills crew arrived in Fillory, a fantastical land not lacking in creatures, endless magical potential and new threats just waiting for their cue to enter through the hidden door.

But even as a wave of change rolls through the show and the action drastically shifts away from Earth itself, some things defy worldly boundaries. Especially, if you’re a traveler.

“Penny’s still Penny,” said Arjun Gupta, who plays the powerful, but aloof magician with the ability to travel between worlds on the the series, which returns 9 p.m. Wednesday.… Read More »

If the first season of Syfy’s “The Magicians” was an adult frolic in a world not unlike “Harry Potter,” then the second season take its cues from “The Chronicles of Narnia” about the perils of handing young people the keys to the kingdom. When we last left the students of Brakebills, they’d crossed over to the no-longer-fictional land of Fillory, a fantastical world of majestic creatures and kingdoms ripped from the pages of Quentin Coldwater’s favorite book series “Fillory and Further.” The… Read More »